UNFORGETTABLES

UNFORGETTABLE1973 SANFL Grand Final: The Year of the Tiger​

h​The 1973 Grand Final was a monumental struggle between two clubs with contrasting mind-sets. North Adelaide was Champions of Australia and seeking their third successive title, Glenelg desperate to break a 39-year drought. This was a tension-filled, frantic, titanic struggle undecided until the thirty-fourth minute of the last quarter.Played in searing heat, the match had everything. It was the last Grand Final at Adelaide Oval until its renaissance in 2014. The Roosters raced to an early lead. Glenelg fought back, North responded, and there were seven lead changes. The Bays lost Tardiff in the ruck and relied on the super-human efforts of Bob Tregenza to ruck all day. By three-quarter time, Glenelg had edged eight points clear.Baby-faced centre half forward Peter Carey was a commanding presence, dominating the aerial duels. The youngster kicked his sixth goal early in the last quarter. Ruckman Bob Tregenza continued his marathon, virtually crawling to the finish line. When club favourite Rex Voigt slammed through his seventh goal to take the lead to fifteen points, the Tigers were looking ominous.North Adelaide’s defence, led by Bob Hammond, lifted and turned defence into attack, kicking two unanswered goals. North edged to within one point of Glenelg. Then John Plummer marked and goaled at the twenty-eight minute mark, and Tiger hearts sank.Five points up, North Adelaide were about to win their third successive flag. Long-suffering Glenelg supporters shrieked and begged and hollered. Impossible. The Bays were going to blow it again. Coach Neil Kerley could feel the acid of defeat seething in his guts.Glenelg suddenly surged the ball forward, only to be again repelled by North Captain Bob Hammond. Then, in the dying moments, Craig Marriott swooped on a loose ball by the boundary line and snapped it over his left shoulder into the Glenelg forward line. Graham Cornes sprang from nowhere to clutch a miraculous mark. All the strain showed on number 12’s face as he gingerly walked back to his mark, socks down and staving off cramps. It wasn’t Cornes’s day – he had been relatively quiet for most of the game – but it was his moment. He coolly slotted the goal. Glenelg was one point up.But North Adelaide would not be denied. Again, they worked the ball forward. Saved by a kamikaze smother from Bays defender Jim Rawson, the Tigers recovered the ball and kept possession. Phillis sent a long ball forward where Sandland marked. Siren! The year of the Tiger! The jubilant forward kicked the goal. It had been a game for the ages and one of the all-time great Grand Finals.Somehow, exhausted Glenelg players summoned the energy to hoist their beloved coach Neil Kerley onto their shoulders. Frenzied supporters raced onto the ground, and the Glenelg players were unable to complete their traditional lap of honour.​